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Monday, May 24, 2010

OK, Who's Watching?

Me! Me! Me! Wearing my bib as I drool all over myself.

If the idea was to temper my eagerness and make me more patient as I wait for Jee-SUS to arrive in the major leagues, it isn't working. I'm even more on the NOW NOW NOW train. That curveball to Scott Sizemore in the first inning left me mumbling.

Would love to see some numbers, I suspect this game will rank pretty high on the MASN rating list. No cheering or clapping out of the booth that I've heard, not yet anyway.

Seriously, we have to wait longer? Doesn't the team need someone to start Saturday in Strasburg's home town?

If it were purely a baseball decision, Strasburg would have made the rotation out of spring training or certainly after those first couple of AAA starts. We've waited this long, we can wait through one more minor league start.

Besides, having secured Diamond Club (first time ever!) seats for 6/4 through the Red Carpet Rewards program, I will be highly disappointed if that is not his debut. We fans who actually go to the games have suffered an awful lot these past two years to have a chance to witness history denied us.

The key question: IF he debuts on the road, does it make his first appearance in DC any less special? In an ideal world, I think a home opener would be best. San Diego, his home, is a pretty good alternative. And that open slot does line up nicely with his schedule.

He won't debut on the road, even if it is his home town San Diego. Think about it. Look at the pros and cons.

Pros: Nats win a game, the people of San Diego feel good because they get to see their hometown boy. Strasburg and his family also feel good, but they're going to feel good anyway because wherever he debuts, they'll be there. His family will probably be following him around for quite a while, so really what do they gain by having him start in SD? And the win the Nats get from him in SD will be offset by a win they won't get from him later in the season after he gets shut down. So the net pro is that the people of SD get a warm fuzzy.

Cons: There are so many things that can go wrong. Strasburg could have plane issues there or back, possibly messing him up for his first DC start. He could get hurt in that SD game and end up getting scratched from his DC start. The SD game is on the west coast and would air in DC late on Saturday night - dead time for TV viewership. The SD game will make a ton of money - but not for the Nats. He could get shelled in the SD game, and then who would care about the first DC game besides the DC media? The national press would move on to the next big story.

Bottom line, there's no benefit to the Nats for starting him in SD, and tons of opportunities for disaster. No way they would do it.

I'm with anon. As the tired old cliche goes, "Baseball is a business." Starting him on the road will cost the team millions of dollars, will cost MASN plenty in the ratings, will cost plenty of fan goodwill and it will shift the national focus of his debut away from Nats stadium, where it should be.

The hype for his first start is going to be insane. The second start will in no way match that. DC has had a distinct dearth of big time sports moments since the last time the Skins won the Superbowl nearly 20 years ago. The city does not deserve to be deprived of this.

For one week, from the day they draft Harper through Strasburg's debut, DC is for the first time since the Nats came to town going to be the center of the baseball universe. We fans need to savor that because we have no way of knowing when it may happen again.

Mike- The answer is yes. I think his MLB debut is something special. I want to be there for that. It's more important than just his "home debut." If he starts in SD, it cheapens his first start in DC, in my mind. I'm not the only one who feels this way- ask the thousands of Philly fans who invaded Nats park on opening day. They always travel well, but they swarmed that game for 1 reason: It was Roy Halladay's debut for the Phillies. They didn't want to wait for the home debut, they wanted to see the first ever. I feel the same about SS.

A Better Way To Play

About me

I'm a former newspaper writer and editor who has taken his skills online as a senior editor at AOL FanHouse (www.fanhouse.com). I'm also a reborn baseball fan. I waited 33 years to get another team in D.C. and finally got my wish - should have thought to ask for a better team while I was begging.